The cannabis epidemic is filling English prisons with Albanians

English courts have sentenced more than 100 illegal Albanian immigrants in just three months for a total sentence of 300 years in prison. Three-quarters (77) of the 101 Albanians jailed between August and October this year were convicted of offenses related to the production of cannabis on farms across England and Wales run by organized gangs, according to an analysis of the cases by The Telegraph.

Many of the illegal immigrants were recruited by gangs after a government crackdown on black economy work made it difficult for them to find work.

British authorities have tripled fines for businesses employing illegal immigrants to up to £60,000 per worker, in a move designed to make the practice so economically damaging it could put them out of business.

A police operation targeting cannabis farms this summer also involved officers seizing up to 130 million pounds of cannabis plants and arresting almost 1,000 people. More than 180,000 plants have been discovered in raids in England and Wales.

Operation Mille targeted illicit crops which police believe are a cash cow for organized crime gangs (OCGs) who are also involved in other offenses such as money laundering, Class A drug smuggling and violence .

In the past five years, Albanian gangs have cornered the cannabis cultivation market by importing their hydroponic expertise in growing Albanian plants to the UK and using illegal immigrants as "gardeners".

The number of Albanians crossing the Channel in 2022 in small boats rose to 12,301 from 800 in 2021, more than a quarter of the 45,755 total arrivals.

Among the prisoners this summer was Nard Nidri, 34, who entered the UK illegally last summer, took refuge in Birmingham and then moved to Swansea where he worked in a car wash before being recruited for a cannabis farm.

He was one of four "gardeners" jailed for a total of six years in August after police arrested them at a property in Neath, south Wales, where two rooms and a loft had been adapted and isolated to grow street-value plants of £85,000.

"Something like an industry"

Sentencing them, Judge Geraint Walters said the cannabis farms run by Albanian criminal gangs had reached "epidemic levels" and, in his view, "had turned into an industry".

He suggested authorities should look at the rental housing sector, noting that while so-called cannabis "farmers" often appeared in court, landlords and others who received money from renting properties used for growing operations rarely did. they did this.

Other Albanians have worked for gangs to pay off debts. Artenis Shehu, 20, was jailed for a year after working on a cannabis farm in the Norfolk Broads to pay off what he claimed was a £2,500 debt he owed an organized crime gang to pay for a medical operation for his father his.

Judge Andreë Shaë told Shehu that the £225,000 cannabis operation was a "sophisticated organisation" which had "all the hallmarks" of "serious organized crime". "The message needs to get out that exploitation by serious organized criminals is not a get-out-of-jail-free card," he said.

Albanian gangs moved into the cannabis industry because it was "very, very low-risk" and high-profit due to high demand - Britons consumed 240 tonnes of the drug worth £2.4 billion in 2021 - and it doesn't require transport dangerous cross-border because she grew up at home, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

This week, James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, signed a new deal with Albania on the rapid return of migrants, which has seen a 90 per cent reduction in the number of Albanians entering Britain this year. /The Telegraph/